你好!
Autumn is here and September is coming to a close. Summer has flown quickly and as the leaves are changing color, I think about how my life has changed and will change in the next couple of months. Life is busy (no surprise there) preparing to leave my job, packing, fundraising and doing mundane things like laundry. :)
This weekend I leave Chicago and travel to Kansas City for the Intro to IHOP-KC internship. I am so ready to go! It’s been over a year since I made my decision to go and it’s finally happening! I excited and nervous about what it is going to be like, but most importantly, I feel at peace and have a direction that I I know is where God wants me to go. No more wondering what is next, trying to figure out where God really wants from me. I am running hard after Him and that’s all that matters. Plus I love road trips. I find that I have the best times of worship and prayer in the car driving. Yup, I’m strange like that. :)
If I look back at this journey, I have to laugh. You see, 10 years ago I told the Lord, “I know you have some kind of missions thing in store for my life, but I have a desire to minister cross culturally. So could you send me to Africa, South America, Australia, etc, etc? Just don’t send me to minister to the Chinese people. I grew up in a chinese church, so I already know how to deal with them. Let me minister to others.”
Oh, how God must have smiled when I told Him that. How ironic that God has changed my heart so completely that not only am I going to Taiwan, but that I can’t wait. God is chuckling, I know it!
Prayer Requests:
• Pray that my prayer and devotional times would be rich and full of His presence. Because of the busyness of my life, they have been hurried and at times, difficult to spend the time that I want to at the Lord’s feet.
• Pray that I wouldn’t be discouraged and overwhelmed with all the preparation and challenges that lie ahead. I’m trusting the Lord, but there are times when it’s a little dark.
• Currently one of the Taiwan youths, James, in the So San church has some bad coughing and when he got some x-rays, they found some white spots on his lungs. He is going in for additional tests, but the hospital will not take him until december, so pray that a earlier opening will open up and that he would be healed..
• Pray that the Lord would quickly raise up the support necessary to do His work.
This is my first newsletter. You’ll see many changes with the format as I tinker around with what works best, so don’t be surprised to see a different format next time. I like to change it up. :)
Thank you so much for all your support! I am so grateful to consider you my friends, brothers and sisters. It is so encouraging to talk to many of you in the past weeks and sharing with you what God is doing in Taiwan. I so value your prayers immensely and couldn’t continue in ministry without them! I hope to get a chance to talk with you in the future. If you want to stop by IHOP to visit, let me know!
As always, if you are led to help out, it’s easy enough. At the end of this letter will be a pledge slip that has instructions on how you can partner with me in reaching Taiwan for Christ!
In Him who Loves us,
josh
_______________________________________________________________________________
Josh’s Taiwan Missionary Journey Pledge Slip
If you would like to be updated with what is going on Taiwan, there are a number of ways you can do this:
1) Join the Facebook group called “Josh's Taiwan Missions Journey”
2) Follow on my taiwan blog (which may have guest “speakers”) at http://fhlministry.blogspot.com
I would like to partner with you in prayer ______
I would like to partner with you financially ______
One time _______________ Monthly Amount: ______________________
• If you are donating monthly, please do so electronically at http://www.fhlministry.com/donate.
• If you are giving a one time donation electronically, you can go to http://www.fhlministry.com/donate
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Home, Sweet Home.
Unlike many others, I never posted a blog entry to share about how the mission trip ended. A big part of me wants to just say that I had forgotten, but deep inside, there was a part of me that didn’t want the trip to end. Yes, I missed home; yes, I missed America, but I knew that if I went home, I would miss Taiwan. Consciously, I knew that the mission trip had ended the moment the camp at Prince Kin ended, but it saddened me that this year is most likely the last year I would be going to Taiwan for missions.
After returning to Taipei a week after the missions ended, I thought I would post my blog entry, but I could not put to words the exact feelings and thoughts I had. I could not figure out what it is that I wanted to say. My mind wanted to say one thing, but my heart felt another.
After another 2 weeks, I finally returned to the United States. That following Saturday, Josh held a Debrief meeting at Church where we would have an MTL and also share what it was that we learned personally from this years Missions trip. I had made previous plans already and could not make it, but when I thought about what I would have shared if I had gone, I still couldn’t put my finger on it.
Today is the 8th of September. I’ve moved from Chicago to Ohio where I have started a new life, and it is now that I realize what I have learned from my experience in Taiwan. It’s the concept of home. Being here in Ohio, it is so different in terms of lifestyle, ethics, rules, and morals. People do different things for fun, and look at things in a different perspective than big city people. Driving around here is different, people rank things of importance differently than Chicago people, and it’s just so much more laid back than a City.
It’s been almost 2 weeks since I’ve moved here, and I want to say in all honesty, I miss home. The first week of moving here, I became so homesick that I cried every single night for a few days because I simply missed being home. I missed my church, my family, my friends…and knowing where I was. Nothing I did felt at home. No one I knew made me feel at home. I would hang out with friends here who would try to keep me busy, but no matter what, my friends here were not the same as my friends at home. Nothing I did here would be the same as what I did at home.
I felt like this until one Sunday when David took me to church with him. We were late, but the moment I walked into that room, I really felt at home. I closed my eyes during worship and it was like being back at my church singing loud to praise our worthy God. During the sermon, I felt like I was back home listening to my own Pastor Bill speak. Even though I was surrounded by Koreans and not Chinese people, and the speaker was Korean, and not white, it was the closest thing to home that I had felt in a really long time.
Of all the change, I realize one thing. I realize that although everything about your world may change, the one thing that will always be familiar to you is God. I realize that I have made God a part of my lifestyle and will always seek after Him.
After returning to Taipei a week after the missions ended, I thought I would post my blog entry, but I could not put to words the exact feelings and thoughts I had. I could not figure out what it is that I wanted to say. My mind wanted to say one thing, but my heart felt another.
After another 2 weeks, I finally returned to the United States. That following Saturday, Josh held a Debrief meeting at Church where we would have an MTL and also share what it was that we learned personally from this years Missions trip. I had made previous plans already and could not make it, but when I thought about what I would have shared if I had gone, I still couldn’t put my finger on it.
Today is the 8th of September. I’ve moved from Chicago to Ohio where I have started a new life, and it is now that I realize what I have learned from my experience in Taiwan. It’s the concept of home. Being here in Ohio, it is so different in terms of lifestyle, ethics, rules, and morals. People do different things for fun, and look at things in a different perspective than big city people. Driving around here is different, people rank things of importance differently than Chicago people, and it’s just so much more laid back than a City.
It’s been almost 2 weeks since I’ve moved here, and I want to say in all honesty, I miss home. The first week of moving here, I became so homesick that I cried every single night for a few days because I simply missed being home. I missed my church, my family, my friends…and knowing where I was. Nothing I did felt at home. No one I knew made me feel at home. I would hang out with friends here who would try to keep me busy, but no matter what, my friends here were not the same as my friends at home. Nothing I did here would be the same as what I did at home.
I felt like this until one Sunday when David took me to church with him. We were late, but the moment I walked into that room, I really felt at home. I closed my eyes during worship and it was like being back at my church singing loud to praise our worthy God. During the sermon, I felt like I was back home listening to my own Pastor Bill speak. Even though I was surrounded by Koreans and not Chinese people, and the speaker was Korean, and not white, it was the closest thing to home that I had felt in a really long time.
Of all the change, I realize one thing. I realize that although everything about your world may change, the one thing that will always be familiar to you is God. I realize that I have made God a part of my lifestyle and will always seek after Him.
In the same way, our Taiwan mission trip last year was very impactful on Taiwan in actively seeking God and serving God. But the thing is, we can run as many Sunday services as we want, lead worship songs as much as we want, teach as much English to the kids, teach them how to dance to Jesus songs, and Teach them the bible, but all of this will go away. The moment we step on to that plane to go back to America, all of that goes with us. We do all these things knowing that this is what we have at home. We are so blessed to be more spiritually fed in America, and we want to make Taiwan just like our own home. But yet, the moment we leave, we take our home with us. Does that defeat the entire purpose? We want to make a home in another place because God resides in this home. And wherever this home will be, God will be. Therefore, we want Jesus in Taiwan.This year, we focused on one thing and one thing only: PRAYER. We held MTL’s every day, beginning from 45 minutes a day, and by the end of the trip, 2 hours a day. We began with some people understanding prayer, to everyone understanding prayer. We began with only US team and So San team in that prayer room, to US team, So San team, Cao Ya team, and Tien Liao Team. We had a 72 hour, 3 days of prayer where youth, kids, and parents from all different churches came and prayed in our prayer room. Where worship leaders of either language led worship in the prayer room. Where prayers were of either language, and yet were praying to the same Father.
So what did I learn this year? I learned the very foundation of what prayer is. Prayer is home. Where there is prayer, there is home. And where there is a home (a church), there will always be prayer. Before, we may have made the church into an activity house. We have games there, events, prizes…etc. but when we left, all of that left with us. It just became a church again. But this year, we made those churches into prayer houses, and when we left, they still were prayer houses.
When I talk to my friends in Taiwan from those churches, it makes me so happy to hear that their prayer meetings are still going strong. It brings me so much joy to know that what we did this year stayed there. Even though they are surrounded in darkness by Buddhist temples, idol worship, and demons, they are able to find freedom from that through prayer. Even though we sometimes think that we are “better off” in America because Christianity is a predominant religion, we don’t realize that we face other types of darkness that hinders us from being at home. Whether it is secular music, gossiping, lying, cheating, or any type of sin, it is the same darkness. It’s the same source. Its Satan. And if we can create a stronghold against him through prayer in Taiwan, then I know I can too, regardless of where I am.
So, I miss Taiwan. I miss Chicago. But I realize that I simply miss Jesus. I now realize that I only felt homesick because I hadn’t found my ‘home’ yet. I was like a lost sheep looking for my Sheppard. My only prayer is that the lost sheep of Taiwan may also find their Sheppard, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanks for all your prayers while we were there. Continue to pray for Taiwan as the Holy Spirit is working and moving through lives. He is the God of Taiwan, and He is faithful.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Love > Power [Priscilla]
I want to submit a different opinion about the last few weeks.
I am ridiculously proud of everyone on the mission team. And I sincerely enjoyed when the Holy Spirit would fill a room we were ministering at and bring about a “cryfest”. It actually happened a lot. It happened most of the nights at Cao Ya (resulting in 3 people radically accepting Jesus as Lord and the Cao Ya youth group taking off weeks of work to join the mission team when they initially did not want to). It happened throughout a lot of the 72 hours of prayer at Shou San. One of the nights a mob of people wailed before the Lord at the altar. We were so stunned by the move of the Spirit that we didn’t know how to end the night. How do you tell a bunch of sobbing people “Ok. Uh, we have to stop now because there’s a 11pm neighborhood curfew where we can’t make noise anymore or else the police will come.”? The “cryfest” happened a lot during MTL times (Minister to the Lord) where we prayed almost 2 hours every day. One night the Holy Spirit fell in the room and our meeting ended up lasting 5 hours as we sat in the sanctuary crying out for our lost family members. It happened the last night of Tien Liao where little kids cried in the presence of God. A 16 year old girl (non-Christian) missed the sermon and entered the sanctuary (cold turkey) in the middle of ministry time and just began to cry under the heaviness of the Holy Ghost. A middle school girl named Sally was sobbing for almost an hour straight in one of our team member’s arms. The “cryfest” happened again at Princekin Elementary School. A gym was transformed into a sanctuary as 50+ little kids (even preschoolers) were crying as they encountered the thick presence of Jesus. Tissue boxes kept being brought into the room as more and more crumpled, white tissues littered the floor. There are more examples of radical moments throughout the mission trip. The “cryfests” happened many times as the Holy Spirit pounded the places with His glory. I loved it when He would minister that way...
BUT...
Those moment are not what impressed me the most. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the “cryfests”. I believe that God moved mightily in them. But those were not the most important/touching moments to me. What moved me the most were those normal days when we (the team) would faithfully go out and love, play, and talk to the kids about Jesus... even when it was tough. That’s where the REAL LOVE was at. It’s easy to get a bunch of people in a room and cry. All you have to do is tell them Jesus loves them, worship (so that the throne of Jesus will descend into the room), and let them loose to encounter. Easy pie. You can just stand at the side and watch. What’s hard is BEING like Jesus to them. It’s hard to motivate yourself to want to win their trust and become their friend. That’s why doing skits, games, testimonies, small groups, and crafts can seem so much harder. IT IS HARDER! It’s harder to love people. It’s not meaningless activity. It’s actually the more necessary, most humbling, and most loving activity of all. It’s easy to just throw them in a room, play some music and watch them cry. But to invest in their lives? To love ON them? To be willing to tell them about Jesus when they’re seemingly disinterested? To disciple them? That’s the tough part. It takes a lot of humility.
I am less impressed by traveling preachers who throw out the Jesus bomb at revival meetings (don’t get me wrong, I think they are necessary and vital in the advancing of God’s kingdom), and more impressed by pastors who stay faithful to a flock, press on through the mundane to disciple them, and practice patience in loving the individual. There are tons of Christians out there who would love to join the Hillsong traveling band and throw wild Jesus parties out for masses to cry at and have a spiritual high. But there are few people who are willing to do the thing that is most like Jesus and faithfully love the weak, unspiritual individual through the mundane.
I love this year’s mission team. It was composed of people who were humble enough to pray and serve. They were all meek enough to love the unlovable day by day, step by step, and choice by choice. We are not perfect. There were definitely days were the accuser of the brethren would put disheartening thoughts into our minds and say that way we faithfully worked to love and teach about Jesus was ineffective and meaningless. But Jesus’ words are the truth and they break the lies of the enemy. Jesus says that when we speak His words it does not return empty (Isaiah 55:11) and that if we give people even a cup of water He will reward us for it (Mark 9:41). There is no doubt that this year’s mission trip was by far the most spiritually powerful. But power without love is empty. I am proud to say that the mission team truly poured themselves out to love everyone God put in their way. Every member exhibited astounding patience, kindness, selflessness, and hope... even in the mundane. To me, witnessing such faithful love in them during the tough days was the most radical expression of Jesus to a broken, love-deficient people.
I am ridiculously proud of everyone on the mission team. And I sincerely enjoyed when the Holy Spirit would fill a room we were ministering at and bring about a “cryfest”. It actually happened a lot. It happened most of the nights at Cao Ya (resulting in 3 people radically accepting Jesus as Lord and the Cao Ya youth group taking off weeks of work to join the mission team when they initially did not want to). It happened throughout a lot of the 72 hours of prayer at Shou San. One of the nights a mob of people wailed before the Lord at the altar. We were so stunned by the move of the Spirit that we didn’t know how to end the night. How do you tell a bunch of sobbing people “Ok. Uh, we have to stop now because there’s a 11pm neighborhood curfew where we can’t make noise anymore or else the police will come.”? The “cryfest” happened a lot during MTL times (Minister to the Lord) where we prayed almost 2 hours every day. One night the Holy Spirit fell in the room and our meeting ended up lasting 5 hours as we sat in the sanctuary crying out for our lost family members. It happened the last night of Tien Liao where little kids cried in the presence of God. A 16 year old girl (non-Christian) missed the sermon and entered the sanctuary (cold turkey) in the middle of ministry time and just began to cry under the heaviness of the Holy Ghost. A middle school girl named Sally was sobbing for almost an hour straight in one of our team member’s arms. The “cryfest” happened again at Princekin Elementary School. A gym was transformed into a sanctuary as 50+ little kids (even preschoolers) were crying as they encountered the thick presence of Jesus. Tissue boxes kept being brought into the room as more and more crumpled, white tissues littered the floor. There are more examples of radical moments throughout the mission trip. The “cryfests” happened many times as the Holy Spirit pounded the places with His glory. I loved it when He would minister that way...
BUT...
Those moment are not what impressed me the most. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the “cryfests”. I believe that God moved mightily in them. But those were not the most important/touching moments to me. What moved me the most were those normal days when we (the team) would faithfully go out and love, play, and talk to the kids about Jesus... even when it was tough. That’s where the REAL LOVE was at. It’s easy to get a bunch of people in a room and cry. All you have to do is tell them Jesus loves them, worship (so that the throne of Jesus will descend into the room), and let them loose to encounter. Easy pie. You can just stand at the side and watch. What’s hard is BEING like Jesus to them. It’s hard to motivate yourself to want to win their trust and become their friend. That’s why doing skits, games, testimonies, small groups, and crafts can seem so much harder. IT IS HARDER! It’s harder to love people. It’s not meaningless activity. It’s actually the more necessary, most humbling, and most loving activity of all. It’s easy to just throw them in a room, play some music and watch them cry. But to invest in their lives? To love ON them? To be willing to tell them about Jesus when they’re seemingly disinterested? To disciple them? That’s the tough part. It takes a lot of humility.
I am less impressed by traveling preachers who throw out the Jesus bomb at revival meetings (don’t get me wrong, I think they are necessary and vital in the advancing of God’s kingdom), and more impressed by pastors who stay faithful to a flock, press on through the mundane to disciple them, and practice patience in loving the individual. There are tons of Christians out there who would love to join the Hillsong traveling band and throw wild Jesus parties out for masses to cry at and have a spiritual high. But there are few people who are willing to do the thing that is most like Jesus and faithfully love the weak, unspiritual individual through the mundane.
I love this year’s mission team. It was composed of people who were humble enough to pray and serve. They were all meek enough to love the unlovable day by day, step by step, and choice by choice. We are not perfect. There were definitely days were the accuser of the brethren would put disheartening thoughts into our minds and say that way we faithfully worked to love and teach about Jesus was ineffective and meaningless. But Jesus’ words are the truth and they break the lies of the enemy. Jesus says that when we speak His words it does not return empty (Isaiah 55:11) and that if we give people even a cup of water He will reward us for it (Mark 9:41). There is no doubt that this year’s mission trip was by far the most spiritually powerful. But power without love is empty. I am proud to say that the mission team truly poured themselves out to love everyone God put in their way. Every member exhibited astounding patience, kindness, selflessness, and hope... even in the mundane. To me, witnessing such faithful love in them during the tough days was the most radical expression of Jesus to a broken, love-deficient people.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Epilogue [Josh]
I write this now with a torn heart. This is my third day in tokyo trying to get home and it looks like the flights are all booked again and I will stay another day in tokyo most likely. It's frustrating staying in the airport all day. Looking back, I wish I didn't go standby as right now, all I want to do is go home or go back to taiwan.
What can I say about this trip? Last year, it was awesome because every night at Tien Liao, we cried out to the Lord together and prayed for the children and the Lord was evident in those camps.
This year? Like Arthur, I was frustrated as it seemed like we were going through the motions and we weren't spending enough time with the Lord asking for His help. If there is one thing that I can say about missions is that there is power in genuine prayer. Cao Ya was difficult, as we were thrown a curveball that we had to deal with 2 locations instead of one. I know that I instantly started thinking logistics and how we could handle all the kids with just half the staff. The Lord started breaking me of the "work first" mentality and is starting to give me a "pray first" mentality. Cause if we start working first, then we'll see a great program that doesn't have the Spirit and that isn't how ministry works. Ministry only works through the Spirit because it is the power of the Spirit that pierces the heart.
Like most others here on the missions trip, the Little Princekin school was the highlight of the trip. God's spirit was really moving in most of the kids there. It was awesome, because prior to that for 4 days, the kids didn't seem to be interested in anything except for playing around and horsing around, which was disheartening to me. Praise God for the missions team, as they held up great and handled the kids no matter how difficult they were.
God sees in different ways than we do. I was struck by this on day 4 when we were talking about the children and I was suprised about how many of them came from broken families. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at them, as they seemed like happy kids. Rambunctious at times, but generally well adjusted. Just goes to sho you how Satan is at work underneath the covers.
The last night that we were there at Princekin, we gave the gospel story (again!) and also had a time where we played music and the teachers (mission team) would pray for them. and the Lord had plans for that time. in both sessions we had the Holy Spirit come down like fire. In Hebrews it talks about Ministers being flames of fire. And in this case, the Holy Spirit came down upon the kids in a mighty way. We started praying for the kids and the kids who didn't seem to care for anything in the world and were only interested in horsing around were englufed by the Holy Spirit and it was so evident that the HS was working. I remember one girl in particular who was sitting alone at the time and I remember sitting next to her and holding her and just weeping for her as the Spirit was so strong that words were inadequate. After we were able to pray for the kids for about a hour (which was half the time that we had with them) we ended with song and the camp was over. Bu the Spirit was still working so evidentally that we had a bit of a celebration praising God and shouting to the Lord. You see, Princekin is a normal school. One of the mothers of the mission team member fought tooth and nail with the school board, parents, husband to have this english camp at the school. So I can say with pretty good accuracy that this was probably the first time that these kids have ever heard the gospel and many of them have never heard any of the bible stories that we ended up talking about. How awesome is that, to be praising God here in a school, where we may not ever get the chance to do this again, that God showed Himself mightily in these children. I pray that the Lord will provide them follow up to be able to nurture that seed that is within them. I pray that Satan will not snuff out this flame.
My laptop is running out of juice and I have nowhere to charge it. So I must end it here. All I know is that I will be returning back and that nothing is going to stop me. God's work must be done here and I know God has called me! Praise the Lord!
What can I say about this trip? Last year, it was awesome because every night at Tien Liao, we cried out to the Lord together and prayed for the children and the Lord was evident in those camps.
This year? Like Arthur, I was frustrated as it seemed like we were going through the motions and we weren't spending enough time with the Lord asking for His help. If there is one thing that I can say about missions is that there is power in genuine prayer. Cao Ya was difficult, as we were thrown a curveball that we had to deal with 2 locations instead of one. I know that I instantly started thinking logistics and how we could handle all the kids with just half the staff. The Lord started breaking me of the "work first" mentality and is starting to give me a "pray first" mentality. Cause if we start working first, then we'll see a great program that doesn't have the Spirit and that isn't how ministry works. Ministry only works through the Spirit because it is the power of the Spirit that pierces the heart.
Like most others here on the missions trip, the Little Princekin school was the highlight of the trip. God's spirit was really moving in most of the kids there. It was awesome, because prior to that for 4 days, the kids didn't seem to be interested in anything except for playing around and horsing around, which was disheartening to me. Praise God for the missions team, as they held up great and handled the kids no matter how difficult they were.
God sees in different ways than we do. I was struck by this on day 4 when we were talking about the children and I was suprised about how many of them came from broken families. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at them, as they seemed like happy kids. Rambunctious at times, but generally well adjusted. Just goes to sho you how Satan is at work underneath the covers.
The last night that we were there at Princekin, we gave the gospel story (again!) and also had a time where we played music and the teachers (mission team) would pray for them. and the Lord had plans for that time. in both sessions we had the Holy Spirit come down like fire. In Hebrews it talks about Ministers being flames of fire. And in this case, the Holy Spirit came down upon the kids in a mighty way. We started praying for the kids and the kids who didn't seem to care for anything in the world and were only interested in horsing around were englufed by the Holy Spirit and it was so evident that the HS was working. I remember one girl in particular who was sitting alone at the time and I remember sitting next to her and holding her and just weeping for her as the Spirit was so strong that words were inadequate. After we were able to pray for the kids for about a hour (which was half the time that we had with them) we ended with song and the camp was over. Bu the Spirit was still working so evidentally that we had a bit of a celebration praising God and shouting to the Lord. You see, Princekin is a normal school. One of the mothers of the mission team member fought tooth and nail with the school board, parents, husband to have this english camp at the school. So I can say with pretty good accuracy that this was probably the first time that these kids have ever heard the gospel and many of them have never heard any of the bible stories that we ended up talking about. How awesome is that, to be praising God here in a school, where we may not ever get the chance to do this again, that God showed Himself mightily in these children. I pray that the Lord will provide them follow up to be able to nurture that seed that is within them. I pray that Satan will not snuff out this flame.
My laptop is running out of juice and I have nowhere to charge it. So I must end it here. All I know is that I will be returning back and that nothing is going to stop me. God's work must be done here and I know God has called me! Praise the Lord!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Prayers Answered [Deanna]
So Missions is over and I am typing in Kenting where I had to ride on arthur's back on a moped...in typhoon rain weather. the SCARIER part is that calvin drove ellie and almost crashed into a car in typhoon rain weather. The man in the car also yelled at him and it was very scary. Praise God we're all alive =)
Anyways, here are the highlights:
we went to go pass out tracks in front of the world games. The initial plan was htat we'd do the body worship but we didn't have portable speakers that run by batteries so we decided to not do it. Then, Priscilla and Ellie started doing street evangalism. Priscilla would speak and ellie would translate and they got a little crowd together. This was when we were done passing out tracks. Then I met up with Arthur who said he had the song on his phone. Then I started gathering a small group together and Arthur played the song and we did it. Then we used Emily's phone that was louder and did it again with a bit more people. And then, we did it a final time in a different area with a full explanation because priscilla and ellie were done. We had a little crowd watching us and videoing us through the phone so hopefully God will use it later on.
For hte last week of missions, we went to samuel's mom's school: Little Prince. I really wanted God to use me thru the kids because honestly, I felt liek I hadn't been used by Him for the kids in tien liao and the other school the first week. So I had fervently been praying but the first day, i tried hugging one of my girls (10 years old) and then another girl in my group yelled at me for hugging her because she had a heart condition and had just had surgery so I was thrown off by that. And then, when we got into groups, I didn't have my nametag so none of hte kids knew my name and all thought my chinese accent was weird because I had really lost my voice that first day. Then we had the afternoon kids and they were like 5-7 years old, REALLY shy, and I just didn't know how to control them. They're so young that it's really hard to talk seriously to them AND to talk to them for a long time because of how short their attention spans are. So i was pretty exasperated the first day.
Then, after the second day, they remembered my name after i told them one last time and then after class they like wouldn't want me to leave and whenever they saw me from their classroom, they'd scream out my name. I think them finding out i was ticklish also helped them to like me more. After I knew they liked me, i started being more bold on what to share with them and being a little more personal. I think because they're starting to understand a little more, they didn't share very personally. But I was very surprised by my afternoon young group because they shared very openly and a lot of them had fathers who drank and smoke all hte time and would hit them or their mother. It was hten that I started really having a heart to pray for all the father's in Taiwan because I think very few understand their true role in guiding a family. I see it in tw drama's too. All the male leads have bad relationships with their father while the female leads have the best relationship w/their father. I think they think too much of hteir responsibility of bringing home the money and leading in that way and not actually caring for their family in a loving way where their kids can actually experience love.
The girl with the heart condition ended up being the one i had the biggest heart for because everyone else in my group had gone to church before and so they could all memorize the verses easily because they had before at some time whereas isabelle would give up and not even try the first day. Then the 2nd day, she seemed more open to God and started participating more in answering questions and she became really attached to me. The 3rd day she wanted to be the first to recite the verse. It really touched me. On the 4th day, when I played with the kids, they all wanted me to sing the 2 songs to them, Alleluia and Deep Down. I didn't think they'd answer the question when i say Do you love your Jesus because they had just learned it but after i reminded them of the harder words, they SCREAMED it and loved that song more than the Alleluia (i think they only wanted that one to tickle me).
The last day was craaaaazy. For our closing we prayed for all the kids individually. All the girls in my older group started crying and I had never seen or felt the Holy Spirit move in such a powerful way, especially with an age group VERY diverse and VERY young. I knew that A LOT A LOT of us were praying for the kids and God really answered our prayers by being present and stirring in their hearts. Even though the girls wouldn't tell us why they're crying besides the fact that they didn't want us to leave/they'd miss us. I know something triggered their crying before they thought of us teachers and I KNOW God was with them. I just pray that theyw ill continue to seek after You, evne if they're not allowed to. Especially isabelle, since her family doesn't believe in anything and she started to understand God's love more and more everyday. 2 of my girls wrote me a card/got me a phone chain and one of those girls also made her sister write me a card in the youngest group. I had no clue who she was either but she for some reason knew me and my name and gave me a card. I felt like God had really answered my prayer by asking to be used by the kids because I had never felt that loved by that many little kids before. I don't interact with little kids that much in the states so all of this was a real blessing and something where we all knew ONLY Christ could have done it.
I also gave my cheese away to James and Chris's sister. I saw how much they loved it and how much james and samuel wanted to steal it before the girls saw it and now it is with them. Hopefully i can come back next year (PLEAAAAASE GOD MAKE A WAY) and HOPEFULLY they take REALLY good care of it and take many many pictures with it =)
I really better get this one back some time, not like my OTHER pillow...
Anyways, here are the highlights:
we went to go pass out tracks in front of the world games. The initial plan was htat we'd do the body worship but we didn't have portable speakers that run by batteries so we decided to not do it. Then, Priscilla and Ellie started doing street evangalism. Priscilla would speak and ellie would translate and they got a little crowd together. This was when we were done passing out tracks. Then I met up with Arthur who said he had the song on his phone. Then I started gathering a small group together and Arthur played the song and we did it. Then we used Emily's phone that was louder and did it again with a bit more people. And then, we did it a final time in a different area with a full explanation because priscilla and ellie were done. We had a little crowd watching us and videoing us through the phone so hopefully God will use it later on.
For hte last week of missions, we went to samuel's mom's school: Little Prince. I really wanted God to use me thru the kids because honestly, I felt liek I hadn't been used by Him for the kids in tien liao and the other school the first week. So I had fervently been praying but the first day, i tried hugging one of my girls (10 years old) and then another girl in my group yelled at me for hugging her because she had a heart condition and had just had surgery so I was thrown off by that. And then, when we got into groups, I didn't have my nametag so none of hte kids knew my name and all thought my chinese accent was weird because I had really lost my voice that first day. Then we had the afternoon kids and they were like 5-7 years old, REALLY shy, and I just didn't know how to control them. They're so young that it's really hard to talk seriously to them AND to talk to them for a long time because of how short their attention spans are. So i was pretty exasperated the first day.
Then, after the second day, they remembered my name after i told them one last time and then after class they like wouldn't want me to leave and whenever they saw me from their classroom, they'd scream out my name. I think them finding out i was ticklish also helped them to like me more. After I knew they liked me, i started being more bold on what to share with them and being a little more personal. I think because they're starting to understand a little more, they didn't share very personally. But I was very surprised by my afternoon young group because they shared very openly and a lot of them had fathers who drank and smoke all hte time and would hit them or their mother. It was hten that I started really having a heart to pray for all the father's in Taiwan because I think very few understand their true role in guiding a family. I see it in tw drama's too. All the male leads have bad relationships with their father while the female leads have the best relationship w/their father. I think they think too much of hteir responsibility of bringing home the money and leading in that way and not actually caring for their family in a loving way where their kids can actually experience love.
The girl with the heart condition ended up being the one i had the biggest heart for because everyone else in my group had gone to church before and so they could all memorize the verses easily because they had before at some time whereas isabelle would give up and not even try the first day. Then the 2nd day, she seemed more open to God and started participating more in answering questions and she became really attached to me. The 3rd day she wanted to be the first to recite the verse. It really touched me. On the 4th day, when I played with the kids, they all wanted me to sing the 2 songs to them, Alleluia and Deep Down. I didn't think they'd answer the question when i say Do you love your Jesus because they had just learned it but after i reminded them of the harder words, they SCREAMED it and loved that song more than the Alleluia (i think they only wanted that one to tickle me).
The last day was craaaaazy. For our closing we prayed for all the kids individually. All the girls in my older group started crying and I had never seen or felt the Holy Spirit move in such a powerful way, especially with an age group VERY diverse and VERY young. I knew that A LOT A LOT of us were praying for the kids and God really answered our prayers by being present and stirring in their hearts. Even though the girls wouldn't tell us why they're crying besides the fact that they didn't want us to leave/they'd miss us. I know something triggered their crying before they thought of us teachers and I KNOW God was with them. I just pray that theyw ill continue to seek after You, evne if they're not allowed to. Especially isabelle, since her family doesn't believe in anything and she started to understand God's love more and more everyday. 2 of my girls wrote me a card/got me a phone chain and one of those girls also made her sister write me a card in the youngest group. I had no clue who she was either but she for some reason knew me and my name and gave me a card. I felt like God had really answered my prayer by asking to be used by the kids because I had never felt that loved by that many little kids before. I don't interact with little kids that much in the states so all of this was a real blessing and something where we all knew ONLY Christ could have done it.
I also gave my cheese away to James and Chris's sister. I saw how much they loved it and how much james and samuel wanted to steal it before the girls saw it and now it is with them. Hopefully i can come back next year (PLEAAAAASE GOD MAKE A WAY) and HOPEFULLY they take REALLY good care of it and take many many pictures with it =)
I really better get this one back some time, not like my OTHER pillow...
the whole shabang [Arthur]
So...it's been quite a while since the first post. A lotta things have been goin on...God's been moving me in a bunch of different directions. I suppose I'll have to start from the first week, since I think the last time I posted, I had only just begun the trip. I'm sure many people have already posted about the stuff that happened weeks ago, but I'll share anyways. During the first week, we spent the first 3 days running something kinda like a summer camp for elementary school kids during the day. We did a lotta "campy" stuff, like crafts, games, the whole bit. Looking back on it, those days derived mixed meanings. In one sense, it felt completely unfruitful...we were making friends with the kids and all, but there were hardly any seeds being planted. The good news of Jesus Christ loving us and dying for our sins was not being spoken of. Our role as Christ's ambassadors had been diminished to that of a common summer camp counselor. Honestly, I felt useless before God. I had traveled all the way to Taiwan merely to teach kids songs and crafts.
I'm not sure about the rest of the team, but for me, the missions trip really started to spice up during the 72 hour prayer fiesta. We started at midnight of a Friday (so technically it's Sat.), making sure that there was always at least one person leading worship and at least a few people praying. When I first heard about the 72 hour prayer event, I was actually kinda dreading it...I've always been lazy in prayer. However, it turned out to be a huge blessing. It was refreshing. It's not very often that I can set aside that kind of time devoted solely to praying to the Lord. I found myself wanting to speak with the Lord more and more. It was awesome.
Feeling restored in my soul, I was excited for the second week of our missions trip: Tien Liao. There, we ministered to students ranging from elementary to middle school. There was a particular student, Tony, who I felt especially convicted to pray for and minister to. I prayed that the Lord would give me boldness to share about Christ, and that the Lord would speak powerfully to Tony. The Holy Spirit, as usual, worked in a way against my expectations. Instead of speaking through me, the Lord spoke through another leader, Chris (Jian Wen), who usually is very timid and soft spoken. The previous week, he was leading a small group with me too, but he rarely said anything. He's one of those guys that'll do whatever needs to get done, but when it comes to speaking to groups of people, nothing comes out. Out of nowhere, Chris began sharing his own testimony with our group at Tien Liao. I don't even remember saying much that day to our group, but I was fine with that. The Holy Spirit was working in both the kids and our missions team. It was...awesome.
Our final week was the sweetest of them all. It was a 5-day ministry at Little Prince kindergarten/elementary school. Actually, when I first heard that it was going to be a 5-day ministry with both a morning and an afternoon group, I was a bit intimidated. From the sound of it, it was going to be the most tiring week of the entire missions trip. The morning group was mostly older elementary school kids, whereas the afternoon group was made up of kindergarteners. The first 3 days went by pretty fast, but I quickly began to feel the same meaninglessness in what we did as I felt during the first week. We sang songs, played games, performed skits, but in the end, Jesus Christ was not being preached. I was desperate for God to do something because the last thing I wanted to do was waste the kids' time and my time by talking about things that won't last. I prayed and prayed and prayed for these kids during our MTL (ministering to the Lord) times, which is a time set apart each day for our missions team to pray to the Lord. On the last day at Little Prince, the Holy Spirit started working like crazy. There's one kid, Frank, that I was particularly moved by. We were singing the song "How Great is Our God" as the missions team went around praying for each kid. When I got to Frank, I really felt moved to pray for him in Chinese, despite my limited vocabulary. I put my hand around his shoulder, and I'm not sure what I said, but after speaking only a few sentences, I felt a tear hit my arm. I opened my eyes briefly to see if Frank was alright, and I saw his eyes completely wet with tears. I hugged him even closer and asked him what was wrong, but he just shook his head. I asked him, "You know Jesus loves you?" and he nodded his head as tears continued to stream down. I didn't know what else to do but continue to pray with him. We prayed to God together, asking Jesus Christ to come into Frank's life and to fill him with the Holy Spirit. When we had finished praying, I opened my eyes and saw that the kids around us were also full of tears. I motioned the kids toward me, and I just hugged them close. It was amazing to the see how the Spirit could move the hearts of even little children. I really felt the words of Christ saying "Bring the children to me". Some of them sat on my calf, so as I prayed, I started to feel a burning sensation, then a numbing sensation. I didn't want to interrupt the good work that the Holy Spirit had already begun, so I prayed to God that He would give me strength in even such a small matter. By the time we finished singing and praying together, my arm was completely wet with tears and snot. But I was alright with that. I counted them as holy tears and holy snot, so in a strange sense, I didn't really want to wash it off. The Holy Spirit really did something great, and I praise God for that. I really had a hard time leaving those kids, but I know that Jesus will never leave them. I'm confident that God, who is faithful, will complete the good work that He's started in them.
I've probably already overwhelmed this posting since I tried to recap the entire missions trip in one hit. Again, I apologize for waiting this long, I feel like I was withholding blessing from you guys, so I want to ask for your forgiveness. If you guys wanna hear more, just shoot me an email or ask me the next time you see me because I'd love to share about it. God is good. Praise the Lord. Amen.
I'm not sure about the rest of the team, but for me, the missions trip really started to spice up during the 72 hour prayer fiesta. We started at midnight of a Friday (so technically it's Sat.), making sure that there was always at least one person leading worship and at least a few people praying. When I first heard about the 72 hour prayer event, I was actually kinda dreading it...I've always been lazy in prayer. However, it turned out to be a huge blessing. It was refreshing. It's not very often that I can set aside that kind of time devoted solely to praying to the Lord. I found myself wanting to speak with the Lord more and more. It was awesome.
Feeling restored in my soul, I was excited for the second week of our missions trip: Tien Liao. There, we ministered to students ranging from elementary to middle school. There was a particular student, Tony, who I felt especially convicted to pray for and minister to. I prayed that the Lord would give me boldness to share about Christ, and that the Lord would speak powerfully to Tony. The Holy Spirit, as usual, worked in a way against my expectations. Instead of speaking through me, the Lord spoke through another leader, Chris (Jian Wen), who usually is very timid and soft spoken. The previous week, he was leading a small group with me too, but he rarely said anything. He's one of those guys that'll do whatever needs to get done, but when it comes to speaking to groups of people, nothing comes out. Out of nowhere, Chris began sharing his own testimony with our group at Tien Liao. I don't even remember saying much that day to our group, but I was fine with that. The Holy Spirit was working in both the kids and our missions team. It was...awesome.
Our final week was the sweetest of them all. It was a 5-day ministry at Little Prince kindergarten/elementary school. Actually, when I first heard that it was going to be a 5-day ministry with both a morning and an afternoon group, I was a bit intimidated. From the sound of it, it was going to be the most tiring week of the entire missions trip. The morning group was mostly older elementary school kids, whereas the afternoon group was made up of kindergarteners. The first 3 days went by pretty fast, but I quickly began to feel the same meaninglessness in what we did as I felt during the first week. We sang songs, played games, performed skits, but in the end, Jesus Christ was not being preached. I was desperate for God to do something because the last thing I wanted to do was waste the kids' time and my time by talking about things that won't last. I prayed and prayed and prayed for these kids during our MTL (ministering to the Lord) times, which is a time set apart each day for our missions team to pray to the Lord. On the last day at Little Prince, the Holy Spirit started working like crazy. There's one kid, Frank, that I was particularly moved by. We were singing the song "How Great is Our God" as the missions team went around praying for each kid. When I got to Frank, I really felt moved to pray for him in Chinese, despite my limited vocabulary. I put my hand around his shoulder, and I'm not sure what I said, but after speaking only a few sentences, I felt a tear hit my arm. I opened my eyes briefly to see if Frank was alright, and I saw his eyes completely wet with tears. I hugged him even closer and asked him what was wrong, but he just shook his head. I asked him, "You know Jesus loves you?" and he nodded his head as tears continued to stream down. I didn't know what else to do but continue to pray with him. We prayed to God together, asking Jesus Christ to come into Frank's life and to fill him with the Holy Spirit. When we had finished praying, I opened my eyes and saw that the kids around us were also full of tears. I motioned the kids toward me, and I just hugged them close. It was amazing to the see how the Spirit could move the hearts of even little children. I really felt the words of Christ saying "Bring the children to me". Some of them sat on my calf, so as I prayed, I started to feel a burning sensation, then a numbing sensation. I didn't want to interrupt the good work that the Holy Spirit had already begun, so I prayed to God that He would give me strength in even such a small matter. By the time we finished singing and praying together, my arm was completely wet with tears and snot. But I was alright with that. I counted them as holy tears and holy snot, so in a strange sense, I didn't really want to wash it off. The Holy Spirit really did something great, and I praise God for that. I really had a hard time leaving those kids, but I know that Jesus will never leave them. I'm confident that God, who is faithful, will complete the good work that He's started in them.
I've probably already overwhelmed this posting since I tried to recap the entire missions trip in one hit. Again, I apologize for waiting this long, I feel like I was withholding blessing from you guys, so I want to ask for your forgiveness. If you guys wanna hear more, just shoot me an email or ask me the next time you see me because I'd love to share about it. God is good. Praise the Lord. Amen.
Closure [Deren]
The missions trip is over, and wow, what a year. As I am awaiting my bus to Taipei I am standing on the balcony of the church overlooking the city of Kaohsiung. I find peace in the strange quiet and stillness of the church. As I reflect back on the many things we have done over the past 3 weeks. Only one thing comes to mind, and that is -Ask and you will receive-.
During this missions trip, we have asked for many things, and they will come in God's timing if they have not already come. I am sure of it. We asked for God to show up, and He came strong. It was a true blessing to see everyone grow in Christ, especially the Taiwanese youth. Prayer is the key, it is how we talk to God. We have all grown spiritually. I pray and hope that this passion inside all our hearts will not die out. As Taiwan Missions 2009 is officially over, I pray that God will continue to do His work.
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